Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Annunciation

Luke 1:26-38v. 28 And [the angel Gabriel] said to [Mary], "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."Lent takes a break today and Christmas intrudes. It's nine months before Christmas, so it is time for Mary to be pregnant. And as we draw ever closer to Easter, it is time for us to be pregnant too.

Among the titles given to Mary by writers in the early Church, none was more exalted than Theotokos, "the God bearer." It was from her flesh that the enfleshment of God was born. The Incarnation depended upon Mary (with a little help from the Holy Spirit, of course).

By virtue of our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ we are each of us made "little Christs," little bearers of God for the world. The work of the Incarnation continues in our own lives. So when I say that as Easter comes it is time for us to be pregnant with God, I mean that it is time anew for us to take our place as God bearers. We are entrusted with the message of the resurrection, shown forth in our lives as much or more than in our words.

All this means is that today I should hear the angel speak to me as well, "Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you." Can you hear that?